How storytelling can help ASToN cities engage and inspire
This post reflects on a Storytelling workshop completed by the ASToN Network: a first-of-its-kind group of African local authorities driving digital transformation projects for sustainable and inclusive cities. Read more about the ASToN network here.
Look around today at this world of information overload, of infobesity, and it’s easy to see that cutting through the noise isn’t easy. In order to connect with the right audience in today’s age of information, stories have to be engaging, relevant, timely, and accessible. Storytelling takes effort, passion, and a solid vision to get right.
The ways to tell a story are infinite. Whether a way for someone to relate or empathise with a particular person, or a call to collective action (such as the public narrative advocated by civil organiser Marshall Ganz), there is a wide range of what storytelling can be, and indeed should be, depending on the context.
The ASToN network’s 11 local authorities have recently taken some time to think about how they can use storytelling in different aspects of their work.
ASToN changemakers have powerful stories to tell
Contained within a city are thousands if not millions of lives, each holding their own values, challenges, and hopes. These citizens have their own stories, and local authorities reflect and act on them. But it’s the stories of those working on their behalf that so often go unnoticed, yet can have real, rippling effects.
The 11 local authorities are on a unique journey to make the lives of their citizens better by conducting digital transformation projects on shared themes, such as improving mobility or increasing citizen participation in democracy and public services. They also form a peer learning network where they support and learn from each other and share ideas.
ASToN changemakers need to share the stories of their work to build awareness: First, to build coalitions of interest in developing a solution that matches the needs of citizens and brings in other implicated groups. Second, cities also require potential solutions to be politically supported and resourced. Finally, the story of the ASToN network and the cities’ learning journey is one that may be interesting for others who might replicate its positive aspects and make use of their practical experience.
For those of us who support the ASToN network, we want to hear the stories of the individuals working within it. Changemakers and innovators in city authorities are often found at the middle level — experts in their domain and practitioners. They rarely have a public profile and typically don’t have much of one internally in the city authority either. That’s why we’re really interested as to how the people in this peer network can access transformative learning, collective action, and indeed, friendships, that can carry over beyond the project in what is a new model for urban projects in Africa, and why we are keen to support them to have a voice and a platform for the change they are driving in their cities.
We’ve already seen the cities share stories in different ways
In Kampala, Uganda, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has used a range of sources including radio stations to consult the public and inform them about their mobility project. Kampala also conducted opinion polls on social media, Google forms on the KCCA website, and online surveys filled by data collectors interviewing members of the informal sector. The KCCA also wants to survey citizen opinions on Tambula initiatives in the city by using SMS surveys similar to U-Report, a social messaging tool created by UNICEF.
This is just one example, so as a network, we decided to build on our existing wisdom by coming together to talk about the power of storytelling as part of ASToN City Week, a set of workshops, peer learning events, and a webinar that took place in March 2021.
The opportunities for storytelling
We conducted a Storytelling workshop with the 11 ASToN cities to reflect on what makes a good story, carve out some time to try some new things, and exchange our respective communications plans for the future.
We were very lucky to be joined by Geci Karuri-Sebina and Melissa Zisengwe from the Civic Tech Innovation Network, a community of practice that builds up innovation in the civic tech space and speaks to the role of African narratives. Geci and Melissa shared why they think African stories need sharing, showing us some great case studies from their partners on civic tech.
Here are three opportunities we uncovered:
1. Sharing stories can raise awareness and engage different groups of people
The power of awareness-raising of public work is a clear opportunity and is one where the Civic Tech Innovation Network has had some experience. As Geci explains:
“If you do something — and especially for officials in government — and nobody knows, it’s as good as not doing it, because it’s really important both for the use but also for the confidence of communities to know there are things happening, and that they can benefit from those.
But more than that, for us it’s also about the engagement. It’s not just about transmitting facts and experience, but stories have the power to transmit the values and the wisdoms that come from what you did… In telling those stories, one builds ownership and relationship. But people can also learn and build from it.”
I personally think that if we want citizens to feel aware and engaged with what is happening in their city, local authorities have to facilitate this engagement.
When done well, sharing stories of local government can go beyond cold, hard facts and help practitioners build a relationship with citizens to encourage involvement and association with what is being done with and for them.
It’s also important to note that awareness-raising can help to share successful models and processes that others can replicate. For example, the manner in which a project team has engaged local stakeholders in a process of co-design can be the basis of a useful story for others to learn from. National or other local governments can lean into the experience of the local authority and build on this knowledge.
2. Transparency can be a story in itself
City practitioners are showing the humility and openness to learning that is necessary to adapt and develop their plans. Transparency can be the next step to sharing this learning with citizens, to better involve and engage them.
We spoke about how transparency can be a story in itself and referenced Audrey Tang — Taiwan’s Digital Minister, who has developed a sense of radical transparency in their role by inviting interaction at a place where people can document their questions at all times.
What can cities learn from this radical transparency?
3. Storytelling can be part of a solution
Sharing stories can also help a city practically achieve goals related to their technical solution. At the Storytelling workshop, Melissa explained that one of the downfalls of civic tech is that “technologists fail to do intentional storytelling, and [show] what they’ve been doing. Techy people create an app or tech initiative but don’t tell them [the citizens] what it actually means to them”.
Consider the case of HarassMap, a platform launched in Cairo, Egypt, that lets people report acts of sexual harassment. When it launched, the application came hand in hand with a series of publicity videos that reinforced the beliefs and principles behind the creation of the application, and ultimately, HarassMap’s mission:
HarassMap is based on the idea that if more people start taking action when sexual harassment happens in their presence, we can end this epidemic together. We support individuals and institutions to stand up to sexual harassment before or when they see it happen. By taking a collective stand against sexual harassment, re-establishing social consequences for harassers — and making role models of people who stand up to them — we believe that harassers can be deterred from harassing again.
HarassMap shows us that Storytelling can be part of a technology solution by engaging people with the original mission of the work.
What’s next
We came together for the Storytelling workshop so that people working within the local authorities could feel more confident in using the concept of storytelling in different aspects of their work.
The session highlighted that authenticity and simplicity are key to telling a great story, and we’ve already seen that across the ASToN network cities are using these ideas: for awareness-raising, engagement, and as part of the solution they are trying to build and test.
The session also highlighted challenges, however, such as making sure that stories reach the right people. While local contexts are invariably different, we all live in a global world driven by attention and saturated with information. Sometimes the information within such stories isn’t right for us for different reasons. Language and literacy, for example, is a big barrier to reaching some citizens, especially those who are often most disenfranchised and whose opinions are the most discounted.
As Melissa says, “We need to find ways to tell stories that reach every person of interest”.
We look forward to seeing brilliant stories coming from our cities, helping to raise awareness, engage and inspire as widely as possible.
If you are interested in the work of the Civic Tech Innovation Network, please see their website, and particularly, their Webinar series on Reclaiming African Narratives through Storytelling.
